NEWS

The 3rd ‘Japan-ASEAN’ seminar

Lecturer:
Michael Chibnik is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. He has conducted research on household economies, work organization, agricultural systems, and craft production in Mexico, Peru, Belize, and the United States. Professor Chibnik’s books include Risky Rivers: The Economics and Politics of Floodplain Farming in Amazonia (1994), Crafting Tradition: The Making and Marketing of Oaxacan Wood Carvings (2003), and Anthropology, Economics, and Choice (2011). He was the editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association, from 2012 to 2016.

Title: Connections to the Wider World: Recent Developments in American Anthropology

Abstract:
Based on his experiences as editor-in-chief of the journal American Anthropologist, Michael Chibnik discusses current trends in sociocultural anthropology in the United States. The two most striking recent developments are (1) an increased emphasis on connections between particular communities, groups, and organizations and the wider world; and (2) a focus on practical issues such as political and ethnic strife, environmental destruction, and migration. The number of articles in American Anthropologist on politics and economics is increasing; studies of kinship and religion are decreasing somewhat. Multi-sited research is now much more common than detailed ethnographic studies of people living in one place.